


Find the Thing You Haven’t Been Looking for

by Loran_Arameri



Series: There Is Enough For Everyone [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BDSM, CBT mention, Dom Tony Stark, Fluff, Impact Play, M/M, Oblivious Tony Stark, Pining, Polyamory, Sub Bruce, Sub Thor (Marvel), no one is cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:33:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28738056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loran_Arameri/pseuds/Loran_Arameri
Summary: Tony is slowly settling into his arrangement with Thor and Bruce when their established habits get disrupted by a mission with Sam. When he comes back everything returns to the way it was, but does he want that?
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark/Thor, Tony Stark/Sam Wilson
Series: There Is Enough For Everyone [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1240613
Comments: 16
Kudos: 26





	Find the Thing You Haven’t Been Looking for

**Author's Note:**

> _strolls in almost two years later with a cup of tea_
> 
> So, this really isn't pwp anymore. It got away from me as we all knew it would. If you're here for Tony domming everyone, you are valid. However this entry is more romance than smut. I split the initial draft in two, so that if you're here for the porn you can skip this part and wait for the next one. It's not going to be two years, I promise.
> 
> To anyone else, I hope you have fun. ^.^
> 
> Thanks for beta go to [Serinah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serinah/pseuds/Serinah).

The team debriefing was wrapping up before Tony got bored. That happened so often lately, it was almost scary. He couldn’t pinpoint if the meetings were getting more interesting, or shorter, or if he was actually getting into the flow of them.

Bruce pulled Steve over for a question, who foreseeably waved over Bucky. Thor demonstrated something with wide-swinging gestures to Clint, who was acknowledging it with laughs and bursts of “no way”. Grinning about the picture, Tony did a quick check of his messages. He had reluctantly agreed to not check his phone during team functions after there had been a vote. Not about everyone not checking their phones. Just him. Thor and Bruce happily joined in the unanimous decision. They said Jarvis would notify him if something required his immediate attention, and they were right.

When he had finished shaking his head about the emails he had received and decided that never would be early enough to answer them, he pocketed the phone and looked up to see if Thor and Bruce were ready to leave. He and Bruce needed to get some work in before it would ultimately again be derailed by Thor, as it always was when they were together.

Thor was still regaling the other Avengers with his exploits, but Sam noticed that Tony had finished and walked over to where he was still sitting.

“So, you and me?”

“A match made in heaven.” Tony stood up, leaning against the table.

“My contact said that until now they never moved too fast. So we will hopefully have 48 hours to organize the stakeout after we find out where they are hunkering down.”

The guy they were after had managed to develop malware that was—according to SHIELDS information—pervasive enough to attack every major digitally controlled infrastructure in the world. And innovative enough to not be stopped or even slowed down by any defensive software that was currently in use. Tony hadn’t believed it until there was an attack on a minor dam in Colorado, causing a local blackout. Their firewalls and anti-malware suite had been all SI tech and there hadn’t been so much as a ping before everything crashed. All control equipment was destroyed before a competent forensic technician could look at it. All they knew was that the thing did what the bad guys said it did and that there were several fail-safes in place in case somebody caught up with them. Or fail-very-much-not-safes as they would release the attack software indiscriminately if their owners were taken down. That was why Tony had to be on the scene to get hold of the physical key at the same time as he was fighting the program.

“It’ll be like a sleepover,” Tony said. At Sam’s skeptical reaction he added, “With a nice shootout in the end and us saving the world from digital terrorism. It’s better than ice cream cake.”

Sam shook his head, but he was laughing. “We’ll see how much fun you think it is after seeing the same face for 72 hours straight.”

“Don’t sell your face short.” Thinking about the time they would spend there and what it would look like when they finally could make a move, another thought came to him. “And you sure you can identify the mark when he shows up? You said on the mission with SHIELD they bailed before you could get close?”

“Yes, but I had them in sight already. I was just back up on that after all.”

“Get to be front and center this time. SHIELD was lucky that they did not trigger the automatic upload that time. Or we could say goodbye to fun things like, don’t know, electricity and modern communication.”

“Yeah, but this time you got our asses covered.”

“That I will do.”

They got interrupted by Bruce calling Tony’s name from the other side of the room. Tony motioned to tell him that he would be over in a second. “You also said something about your wings?”

“There is a recurring issue with some of the panels causing friction and slowly losing movement. I deal with it in maintenance, and usually, I would have a hard time believing someone could make them better than they are…

Smelling a compliment, Tony tried to roll over it right away. “Also, it may be a side effect of them being riddled with holes so often.”

“I will try to fly around the bullets in the future, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

Tony was startled into a laugh. “We definitely can do something about that. And your body armor, too. What about the color?”

“What about it. You don’t like my style?”

“I like the red.”

“Of course you do.”

“I think it looks good on you.” A movement in the corner of his eye caught Tony’s attention. Nat had turned to look at them. She wasn’t looking at them now, but Tony was sure that she had just a second ago. He shrugged innerly and returned to the conversation.

“We should look at the wings after the mission. I’ll send you diagnostic software to take some records over the mission. That should help to weed the issues out.”

“Great.”

Tony’s eyes were again drawn to where Thor had stopped talking and was beaming over at them.

“Let’s talk strategy more later,” he told Sam. Then he thought about what Thor, Bruce, and he had planned later that day. “Or maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow is good.”

He clapped Sam’s shoulder and trotted over to where Thor and Bruce were waiting.

* * *

At the lab, Tony headed straight for his workbench. Bruce did the same. Thor leaned onto the bench right next to Tony. “Uh-uh, honey. I have stuff to do—for real and not just to give you a challenge for distracting me.”

Thor grumbled in answer.

“You can try with Bruce though.”

“No way. Those samples get worked up today.”

They did this often enough to know where they were headed. Their track record for staying on their projects when Thor put his mind to other activities was abysmal. It didn’t mean they didn’t try.

Thor said, “I’m not as impatient or insatiable as you make me out to be.” He went over to the lab couch that Tony had meanwhile upgraded from the ratty old thing that had made it over from Malibu to a not less comfortable larger version. As it were Thor was sitting exactly in Tony’s line of sight and Tony wouldn’t have been a futurist if he didn’t expect Thor to do something very distracting in the next fifteen minutes. He still pulled up a new project folder, called it “Wind beneath my wings”, and got to work.

* * *

The promise of coffee had finally roused Tony from his bed. The kitchen in his suite saw way more use now that Thor and Bruce were staying over regularly. Bruce was preparing his own tea leaves when Tony bopped in. He gave him a tender hip check and went on to press the button on his machine. While the grind-and-brew did its thing, Tony watched as Bruce studiously weighed, brewed, and slowly steeped his tea. Even the far shorter wait time and absence of any additional steps for getting a coffee compared to tea hadn’t convinced Bruce to switch his caffeine source of choice in the morning. He was wearing a set of soft pants and a long-sleeved green t-shirt after his morning meditation, and Tony wondered when he got used to Bruce being just there in his space, with almost all shells taken off and it being the most familiar thing. He smiled and turned away before Bruce could see.

They settled with their two steaming cups at the corner of the dining table that was much too large for just two or three, but that was all the use it saw if at all. With everyone living in the penthouse it was more fun hanging out in the common areas most of the time.

“You are leaving tomorrow?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, late afternoon, so we can get in at dusk, hopefully unnoticed. When will Thor be back?”

Thor had been gone to Asgard since the day before because there were some things to attend to, nothing major, but he was still their prince after all.

“Tomorrow morning. He’ll make sure you’ll get enough of him before takeoff,” Bruce said with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

Tony smiled at the thought. It didn’t matter if Bruce was implying that Thor would just want to spend the whole day together before Tony would be gone for an unknown amount of time, or if he was hinting that Thor would make sure they would all not leave the bedroom tomorrow. Both were good in Tony’s book. They weren’t actually dating but any amount of time they spent together Tony did enjoy. Bruce took the tea egg from his mug and dropped it on an extra plate.

“Do you have enough leaves left?”

“I know how to tell JARVIS to order more, Tony.” The reprimand was mild, ribbing but tender.

“Just making sure you don’t run out while I’m away. We still don’t know when we will be back. And we both know you like to hang out here even when I’m gone.”

“What can I say, your couch pit is addictive.”

“And the couch in the common areas are what? Bedrock?” Tony was now thinking and talking at the same speed, which wasn’t always a good idea. “But then we all can’t really hang out like that there, can we? Or we at least don’t. It would lead to awkward questions and we don’t want to answer these, right?”

Bruce shortly looked at him with a tilted head but then returned to blow away the steam from his cup. Tony took a sip of his own scorchingly hot life elixir.

Tony was still thinking aloud. “Maybe we could do a little more remodeling than just the playroom. Give us some actual shared space up here.”

Bruce didn’t say anything to that. He had his thinking face on but was looking out of the window to the atrium that stretched over both floors of the penthouse and built the central space of the common area. He finally began to drink his tea and Tony didn’t poke him with questions. Bruce was very able to speak up when he saw the need. Instead Tony joined him by looking at the clouds painting shadows through the headlights on the floor a story below.

When their beverages were almost done, Bruce spoke up again. “How is the playroom coming along?”

Tony had to grin. “You would like to know that, hmm?”

“Yes, that is why I’m asking.” Bruce had no issues saying what he was thinking.

“Still doing the actual remodeling, so nothing to see there yet.” He waited for a moment until Bruce looked at him again. “I got something that will go in there already, though.”

“And what would that be?” He took the last sip of his tea and Tony would have almost bought into the continued calm he was projecting if it hadn’t been for Bruce keeping the cup up seconds after it was drained. As if he needed a moment to catch himself.

Tony innerly did an embarrassing victory dance because Bruce had bitten. “I could show you.”

“Show me, huh?” Bruce was saying it with an ironic note, but he couldn’t betray his interest.

Tony stood up and didn’t look back when he said, “Follow me.”

Bruce huffed but the scuffing of his chair was immediate. Tony suppressed most of the spring that wanted to sneak into his step. He had left the package in his study. He got it from the sideboard and lay the flat box out on his desk, Bruce coming to stand beside him. He took a moment before lifting the lid.

“Floggers?” Bruce's voice was a mix between skepticism and hard to contain arousal.

“Do you really want to question my decision?” Tony asked in a low voice. “Again?”

Bruce licked his lips. Slowly the confident, ironic, uber-smart shell was melting away and that other side of Bruce was coming out. It had become a lot easier over the last weeks. After that first time, Bruce had enough trust in Tony’s judgment to at least try. Sometimes they needed to do some adjusting, but overall, Tony had a good sense of what Bruce liked.

Bruce took a moment to take the floggers and Tony’s suggestion in. “You have time for it this morning?”

“I’m already officially on leave from SI. I have all the time I need.” In fact, he had to finish some stuff before he left, but the relevant bits would all fit in one afternoon and he could shoot the other ones off to other people. He knew some people in R&D who were eager for a challenge.

“You make the face that you have when you make up facts as you go. You weren’t on leave five minutes ago, were you?”

Tony put himself up a little more straight. “Bruce, that’s not your concern. I have the time. You just need to tell me if you're up for it.”

Bruce shifted his weight from one foot to the other and reached out a hand to touch the tresses on the heaviest flogger. “What are you thinking about?”

“They’re all new so I think we do a bit of calibrating and then see how much fun we can have with these. Well, how much fun I can have.”

Tony waited for a snarky comeback or more questions, but that nothing was forthcoming was a sign that Bruce was already sold on it and he was at least half-way to where Tony needed him to be.

“Yeah, okay.” There was a short pause in which Bruce was still focused on the floggers before him. Finally, he tore his eyes away. “Here?”

“In my study? How kinky of you.” And didn’t Tony have some ideas for that, but he was still in t-shirt and boxers. The scene he was imagining had him in a three-piece suit and Bruce—and probably Thor—in mostly nothing. “Let’s go back to the bedroom. I’ll put you on the bed. It’ll be nice and relaxing.”

Bruce's lip curled up in reluctant amusement. He could do with a bit more help getting in the headspace. “Put the lid back on the box, pick it up, and let’s go.”

Bruce did as told, but didn’t make any move towards the bedroom on his own. Tony smiled at him and put a hand on his lower back, gently maneuvering him through the doorway and the small attached bar space into his bedroom.

“Put them down on the table by the window. And then get out of the clothes.”

Tony busied himself with taking the floggers out of their box while Bruce got undressed and without turning he said, “You can lean over on the bed for the warm-up.” He picked up the light suede flogger from the bunch and turned around.

Bruce was exactly where he had told him to be, naked, upper body on the bed, feet on the ground, his skin standing out against the white sheets, some tension in his legs and lower back, but so, so obedient. Delighted, Tony took the few steps over. He swung the flogger at Bruce’s exposed butt without any further introduction. There was no weight to it, but the thud it made was so satisfying. Bruce didn’t as much as twitch, but Tony hadn’t really expected him to at this intensity. It didn’t make it less exciting, more of the opposite. Things were going exactly according to Tony’s plan.

He covered thighs and ass with rhythmical strokes for a few minutes until the skin was taking on color. It was more time than would have been necessary to succinctly warm Bruce up, but Tony liked to push this phase. Mostly because they both knew Bruce’s impatience and doing something that was obviously for Tony’s sake… It gave Tony a small kick, especially since Bruce didn’t even nag him about it anymore. By now he just leaned into letting Tony make the decisions, and from their debriefings, came even to enjoy that aspect.

“Yeah, I like that color, but I think we can get some more of it.” He ended the series with a serious smack, and Bruce reacted with a satisfying groan. “Get up on the bed, flat on your stomach. Put your hands beside your head. Yeah, like that.”

For the moment Tony resisted the urge of grabbing two hands full of Bruce's ass. It would be much more satisfying later. He not only made his subs wait for their gratification but applied the same to himself and they were all better off for it.

Tony quickly got the next flogger from the table, only noticing when he came back that he hadn’t told Bruce to keep his head down. Instead, he was craning his neck, trying to get a glimpse of what to expect next.

“Are you looking for something you would like or something you won’t?”

It took a moment for Bruce to answer. “Both.”

Tony held out the flogger he had picked up. Bruce looked at it with a slightly distant look. Then he put his head back onto his folded arms without commentary.

Tony gave it a handful of strokes before he put some weight behind the swings. A nice rhythm of three medium hits and then one that had Bruce gulp for air. “A number for this one?” Tony didn’t wait for an answer but continued. It took Bruce three full cycles but then he said, “Five.”

Tony bit his lip. “Are you sure?” He dealt Bruce some more measured strokes while he waited for him to think about it, but right when he breathed in to answer, Tony brought the flogger down hard and landed only the tips of the tassels on Bruce's ass. Instead of a number Bruce yowled.

Tony did not wait. It felt exactly right and Bruce’s reactions only made him surer. He knew what Bruce was feeling, what he was taking from Tony. One light strike for the rhythm and then he gave Bruce another one, close to full force but not quite as nicely placed as the one before, but still good enough; the large impact on the same spot had the desired effect.

“Eight,” Bruce yelled.

“Yeah, that’s about what I thought.” He continued the light strikes on the now darkening side and made sure that the other one colored up the same way. Bruce did not make any loud sounds but his breathing got noticeably labored. Dialing it back a bit, Tony covered larger parts of ass and thighs. At this point, Bruce’s reactions were minimal, but by now, they were enough for Tony. They had established in what headspace Bruce was during these times. Tony knew that Bruce was losing himself in the sensation and, at the same time, focusing on who was doing that to him; it made it hard to bring this part of the scene to an end. But Tony had plans, and they were good plans, so he ended the series with several consecutive well-weighted strikes, leaving Bruce panting when he was done.

He put the flogger away and sat down next to Bruce on the bed, placing a hand between his shoulder blades. Bruce was warm, almost hot, and covered in a thin film of sweat. The lingering tension in his shoulders slowly dissipated under Tony’s touch. It took a while, but then Bruce turned his head and made eye contact.

Tony said, “There are several left, but for today, one more is enough. It’s going to be worse than this one though.” 

Bruce looked at him but made no attempt at communicating. He was pretty much gone. Tony moved his hand into his hair and slightly massaged at his skull. Bruce’s eyes fell closed instantly. Tony hummed. As much as he loved to hurt Bruce, he could never get enough of this part either where all of Bruce’s walls were down and he was just trusting Tony to take care of him, one way or the other. It was an intimacy that hardly compared to anything else.

Gliding his hand to Bruce’s chin, Tony got his attention with a slight shake. “One more, but I’ll let you choose blindly between two options, alright?”

Bruce took his time to answer. “Yeah.” It was more confirmation that he had heard the question than any kind of assent. At this stage, Bruce would probably go with all of Tony’s suggestions. A fact that Tony would never take advantage of.

“Put your head straight down and no peeking.”

Tony went to pick up the two floggers in question. “Right or left?”

Again it took a while, even though they both knew there was no real choice as Bruce didn’t know what Tony had in which hand. “Left.”

Tony took a deep breath to push his excitement a little off to the side. He put down the other one and changed hands with the selected flogger. He did not give Bruce any strikes to get used to the sensation. He hit him good, harder for sure than he had hit when testing the implement on himself right after the package had been delivered the day before.

Bruce shouted and went up on all fours in an instant.

“I guess that was the one you were afraid of? Hold still.” Tony hit him once right, and on the backstroke, left. Bruce didn’t get as loud as the first time, but there was still enough of it for Tony to be delighted. “Latex. Custom made.” One—two more swings. Bruce was obviously looking for a way to stay still and struggling with the impossibility of it. “Lie back down. Grab the sheets if you have to. But I know you can take it.” Carefully Bruce went down again and grabbed what he could reach. He then gave a nod. He was more responsive now than just a few minutes ago, the changed sensation obviously drawing him out of his sunken headspace. “You can hold still for me, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

The next minute was tantalizing to Tony. The way the flogger sprang back from the skin, the way his own rhythm was answered by Bruce’s vocalizations, Bruce obviously trying so hard to stay still, darkening streaks that were painted across Bruce’s ass. Tony counted the swings to not get lost in it completely. He was sure that he would be looking a little bit wild to an onlooker, could feel how the exertion was driving sweat to his temples and his hair was probably straying in all directions.

When he stopped for a moment, Bruce seemed to melt into the mattress.

“Today might be the day I finally manage to leave some nice large marks. Can you imagine what Thor is going to say?”

Bruce groaned and ground out, “More, please.”

Tony did not wait for another invitation. He repeated the set twice. He was sure that Bruce had started counting too and knew how many strokes he had to go before a break.

“Two rounds more. One to the thighs and one to the ass. Any last words?”

“Is it enough?”

Tony knew Bruce meant to leave marks. Apparently Tony had hit the nail on the head there. “Probably. If not, we can totally do it again as soon as I’m back.” The groan Bruce gave in answer was half lust half agony.

Tony swung the flogger.

The sets flew by, but it was easy to see that Bruce was really close to his threshold. The switch to the thighs gave his ass some time to recover, but he was yelling with any hit by the end. Tony counted the last five backward. And then they were done.

Tony put away the flogger to be taken care of later and sat down next to Bruce again.

“You’re done. You did so well.” He stroked his hand down Bruce’s back, feeling the way he was still tensing up with the aftermath of the sensation. This might have been their most intense session yet. “You took so much. Thor’s going to be all over that backside of yours.” Bruce gave a gurgling sound, between turned on and sobbing. “You’ll both have something to remember me by while I’m gone. You’ll notice it every time you sit down, and Thor can take care of the bruises when you go to bed.” Bruce glanced up at him with a mix of want and pure bliss in his eyes.

“Can you move?” When Bruce made it to his hands and knees alright, Tony took off his t-shirt and scooted up to the headboard, indicating for Bruce to put his head in his lap. That way they could cuddle until Bruce’s pain had subsided a bit.

A hand on Bruce's neck, he asked, “Tell me how it feels.”

“It burns, still, with every move. But it’s also aching. It’s so good.”

They sat in silence for a while. 

Tony let his hand wander down to Bruce’s red and swollen butt which was radiating heat. Bruce acknowledged the touch with a moan.

“Can you imagine if I let Thor rim you after this?” Bruce’s groan said he obviously could. “You know how he kneads your ass all the time doing it?” Bruce’s squirming said he could. “I guess you’re up for more, huh? You want to come?” Both Bruce and Thor always wanted to come at the end of a scene, but Tony still made a point of asking. Maybe he was an optimist.

“Yes.”

“In that case, you are going to sit up now, your back to my chest.”

Bruce did not hesitate, though he winced, sitting down on his abused backside. His cock was straining to get up, obviously looking forward to what was to come. Leaning over to the bedside table, Tony grabbed the lube. Then he pulled Bruce to lay against him while he slicked up his hands.

He took Bruce in hand and worked him to a full erection. “Were you hard when I was hurting you?”

Bruce’s head dropped back to Tony’s shoulder. “Yes,” he moaned.

“Even with the latex one?”

“Especially then.”

Tony dropped one hand down to play with the balls. Bruce’s hands were glued to the mattress, keeping still without Tony having to say anything. He pressed a kiss to Bruce’s exposed throat. Tony’s own cock was pressing through his boxer shorts against Bruce; it just added to the deliciousness.

“You wouldn’t believe the colors your ass went to. If it doesn’t mark up from this, I’ll need to tie you up and just have a go at it with the heavy flogger and double the time .”

Bruce moaned and fucked up into Tony’s hand.

Tony stopped. “Uh.”

“I’m sorry.” Bruce actually sounded pained.

Starting his ministrations up again, Tony said, “One strike.” He had no idea what happened at three, but it would be fun to find out.

“I’ll be good,” Bruce genuinely sounded like he was worried.

“I know you will. You always are.”

With that Bruce noticeably relaxed back into Tony’s arms. “It’s also my fault for telling you much too exciting things, isn’t it?” He increased the frequency of stroking, wrapping the other arm around Bruce’s torso. “Next time I could make it impossible for you to move and then work you through until only the ties are holding you up?” Bruce gulped in air but did not move an inch. “You wouldn’t need to hold still or hold back, you would just need to take it.” Bruce was getting there fast, and Tony was enjoying the way he was making the smallest motions. He was so obviously still fighting. “Thor could hold you up in the end when I let you come. Hold you with one of those giant hands pressed against his chest and jerk you off with the other.” Bruce’s back muscles were dancing and he was very obviously in pain from the changing pressure on his ass. Then he jolted back, pressing into Tony, and came with a yell. Tony worked him through it. He even managed to sneak a hand down to where Bruce had lifted off the mattress and squeeze his ass for good measure. Bruce tried to twist away, and at the same time, his cock jerked in one final spurt of come. Tony let go of cock and ass, and Bruce sacked down into his arms.

For a while they just lay there like this, but then Tony had to be the reasonable one. “We should get you under a shower or that will get itchy. After that I can work from the couch; I don’t think you should be sitting down on that today.”

Bruce huffed. He wasn’t quite verbal yet again. “Shower and more tea.”

“A Shower, more tea, and couch it is.”

* * *

“This is against some federal law. I’m sure. Some form of workplace harassment.”

Tony finished the set of burpee and leg raise combination. His legs felt like jelly.

“You wanted to join,” Sam said while gesturing for Tony to make space, so he could do the next set.

Tony took the position at the window, keeping an eye on the building on the other side of the road.

Sam continued, “And I don’t see the issue. You’re doing well.” He went into a series of modified push-ups, that had him balance on one hand and put the other one straight to the ceiling in between. “And be grateful I’m not also keeping up with Natasha’s stretching routine.”

Tony groaned. “I’m just saying that you have an advantage as we’re doing your routine.” He kept an eye out on the street but turned around occasionally to watch Sam carry out his work out.

“Nobody said it was a competition,” Sam said with an undertone that made clear that it was a competition. Tony could see that he was smiling whenever he lifted his left arm towards the ceiling.

Tony knew that Sam did his training often with Cap and Bucky; he was wondering now how frustrating _that_ must be. Sam was a baseline human just like Tony. He was fit, but keeping up with the supersoldier duo was a rigged game. On the other hand, Tony was now struggling to keep up with Sam.

When Sam came up again, smiling at him, Tony thought about suggesting doing some hand to hand sparring but then he remembered a) that they were still on a stakeout mission and b) Sam’s military training. He canned the thought. For now.

They had arrived at the apartment they had rented through layers and layers of shell companies and false identities, covered by night, two days ago. It was a small two-bedroom apartment, fully furnished, homey but in a functional way. Nothing like stake out places in the movies; it felt more like a hotel room, but in the last two days they had managed to fill it with life enough that it felt not so hollow.

They took turns in keeping an eye on the building that their marks were inhabiting right now. They had confirmed that they were there when one of them had gone to the corner store last night, to get some beer and what looked like a family pack of Twizzlers. According to Sam’s informant, these people were about to meet the group in possession of the software that could end modern civilization and buy said software. If they acted in the right moment, Sam and Tony would get hold of the sellers, the buyers, and the software.

In the first two days, Tony and Sam had been feeling out each other’s edges, starting on the first morning when Sam, after getting up, went right into his morning workout.

“Can I join?”

“You were up for almost 24 hours now.”

“That’s not a no.”

Sam just shrugged and off they were.

Tony fell into a dead-like sleep after.

In two days he had found out that Sam had a routine and liked to stick with it. Getting up at sunrise, workout until eight, hit the shower. Then Tony went to bed and when he woke up Sam was watching the street while listening to music on some in-ears.

Tony decided that they needed to get the music question out of the way that very morning. “I won’t use headphones.”

Sam looked at him as if he had said he liked to eat live squid for breakfast. _That is weird, but I still don’t know why you are telling me this._

“I mean I still will listen to music but out loud, so we should come to an agreement now.”

Sam weighed the suggestion with a tilt of his head. “I have heard some of the stuff you listen to, and I won’t be held accountable for what I do after listening to that for an hour.”

“Well, I have no idea what you hear, but I can’t hear it from your headphones so I’m weary.”

“If you just need the noise of a jackhammer blasting your skull, you can put on your helmet and I whack it—”

Tony held his hands up. The discussion was weirdly civil in tone, but obviously, Sam was not going to easily give in. “Let me hear what you were listening to right now?”

Sam plugged off the headphones from his phone and an upbeat R’n’B song with an intriguing rhythm streamed out. When Tony nodded, Sam gave him a small smile that Tony couldn’t easily place.

They ended up agreeing on alternating who chose what would be played. And it worked out.

Overall, their days were going smoothly. Tony had expected that they either would be out of there soon or end up at each other’s throats, but it somehow worked. There had been a few other minor hiccups.

Sam for instance had cooked dinner that first day before he went to bed and it was amazing for the kind of rations they had brought. But when it came to cooking the next day, Sam wasn’t going to do it and stood his ground. He also wasn’t amenable to bribery.

“You get any extras on those new wings that you could want?”

“Stark, no one could keep you from building in any extra that you can think of anyway.”

“Tony.”

“Huh?” Sam looked up from his video game.

“Call me Tony.”

“Tony, as long as those wings do fly, I’m good, and I know they’ll be better than anything I can imagine now.”

“True.” Tony tried to think fast. “A sports car?”

“What am I supposed to do with a sports car in New York?” There was that small smile again.

Tony bit his lip. “I will find something, you know?”

“Just warm up the damn can of beans.”

But in the whole time they spent in the tiny apartment, they also got a lot of possibilities to talk. Over lunch, or just in between the other things, while one of them was supposed to be going to sleep while the other one watched the apartment on the other side of the road. It was a bit strange at first, getting to know the person Tony had been on a team with for over a year now, but then there was always a crowd around usually. So he could update his knowledge about Sam with where he had gone to college and that he was allergic to raw tomatoes.

“That must suck. No tomatoes on Hamburgers? The salsas alone.”

Sam laughs. “That all isn’t as bad as the peaches.”

“Peaches too?”

“Yeah, and it only happened when I was already in the Air Force. One day I come back home and steal one off the tree in my mother’s garden and then had to explain to her why my lips were swollen.” He laughs some more.

“Rhodey always said no CO could ever put as much fear into him as his mom.”

“And what about you?”

“Mrs. Rhodes loves me,” Tony said with some indignation.

“But you are still calling her Mrs. Rhodes.”

“Yes, I’m not crazy.”

Sam looked a bit pensive. “My mom only has a handful of clear rules. That was the only one I broke more than once.” He laughed again. “I see it now with my niece too. It’s so much more about letting them not alone with a world that is much too big to make sense of. It’s good to know there is someone in your corner who gives a damn about what you do.”

“True.” Tony felt that. “Rhodey and Pepper keep me in check, and I would not miss one bit of it.”

Sam looked at him for a long moment. It seemed as if he was trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“I hope they don’t make you go without dessert for a week.”

“They have tried.”

They were getting along well, but by day five, all that seemed like a fluke. No one was cooped up five days with Tony without getting majorly annoyed by him.

Maybe there were more similarities between them that Tony had found on the surface.

Every day after training, Sam occupied the bathroom, and Tony managed to go two days before asking about his grooming routine. “Scissors?”

“Yes, and a razor.”

“But how?”

“The scissors cut; the razor shaves.”

“How do you not look like you went at your beard with a chainsaw.”

“Steady hands.” Sam smiled at him.

Tony would have expected that his line up of care products might make Sam roll his eyes. Tony cared for his appearance and he wasn’t going to let that slide just because of the stakeout. But Sam’s number of products matched his one to one.

Tony was so amused by it that he took a photo before he remembered that he couldn’t send it anywhere as they were on blackout. He could have of course encrypted everything that they would send or received but the amount of data and the encryption level would have been a dead giveaway by themselves. At least for the people they were trying to catch. He looked at the photo again, smiled, and pocketed his phone.

It was weird. The good kind of weird. Tony and Sam had been cooped up in the small apartment for almost a week. There were the usual signs of the stress of being in an enclosed space without any contact with the outside for that long. What was weird was that they weren’t grating on each other’s nerves.

Whenever Tony said something objectively outrageous, all Sam did was give him a small mischievous smile. Tony didn’t know how he felt about it.

The more Tony was thinking about it now he was sure that this pretty relaxed mood they had going was just a precarious balance with Sam holding himself back from losing it over Tony’s permanent presence. They were five days in when Tony became suddenly obnoxiously aware of that fact.

It was in the afternoon that Tony, from where he was keeping watch at the window, looked over at Sam. He was reading a book which was normal. In the afternoon after Tony had gotten up and taken over the watch, Sam read or played some video games.

For some time, Tony’s attention flipped back and forth between the building that was obnoxiously unchanged and Sam who was posing a conundrum. Why hadn’t this situation imploded yet? It was actually quite nice in a way. Tony got some work done. Offline for once, but he had made big leaps in a few projects over the last days. It almost felt like a fancy retreat where you had to pay thousands of dollars so someone would lock you in a small room and make you cook your own meals without having any contact with your work or home. But Tony had managed to even get kicked out of those before.

When he just couldn’t poke a hole in the whole balloon of contradictions, he opened his mouth. “What are you reading?”

“A biography,” Sam answered without looking up.

“Of whom?”

“Of an artist.”

Tony wondered if it was worth it to ask, but before he could, Sam said, “Do you know any contemporary artists?”

“Personally or their work? Yes to the first, no to the latter.”

Sam rolled his eyes but smiled.

“I could introduce you,” Tony added.

“To whom?”

“To the artists I know.”

Sam looked at him bewildered for a moment but then said, “Sure. Why not.” And there was that smile again.

Tony made a note to ask Pepper when they were back which artists he knew.

On the evening of day six, a convoy of three cars rolled up the street once and then again a few minutes later. It stopped 30 feet from the house they were watching. Tony was on the lookout, and when a group of five spilled out, he alarmed Sam. “We have something.”

Sam instantly dropped his Vita to the couch, went around the table, taking a spyglass in passing, and sidled up to the window, so he would be largely covered by the wall while looking outside. The sun on the windows should cover them pretty well, but Sam was covering all his bases. Every one of his movements spoke to his training. Silent they watched the group making their way to the door.

“Is that our guy?” Tony asked. Sam had seen their suspect on another mission with SHIELD a while ago. That time he got away. They would try to rectify that this time.

“Could be,” Sam answered. “The sunglasses and hat make it hard to tell, which is probably the point. Can the key be in the case?”

“It could be up his ass for all we know.”

Sam grunted dissatisfiedly. “Wait and see what happens?”

“Yeah.” They would blow the only chance they had if they interrupted a normal weapon or drug deal.

Tony made sure that the parabolic microphone was on and working. The guys in the apartment weren’t very talkative usually.

They could hear and see the group enter the apartment. Before any words were spoken the man in the middle removed his hat and sunglasses, and Sam said, “It’s him. That’s our go.”

Tony opened the case that had been at his feet at all times these six days. While the suit wrapped around him he checked on Sam who already had put on the last parts of his suit and was now strapping on his wings. He realized at that moment that this was the end of their time in the tiny apartment and it stung a bit. But he had hardly time to think about it. As always the faceplate did not close on its own but stayed open for him to snap down. He committed the motions to memory with which Sam was closing the armored part of his costume over the straps of his wings. Something about it tickled his curiosity, and he would look at it later when working on the redesign.

It was less than a minute until they were both suited up.

“Ready?” Tony asked.

Sam opened the window, swung one leg outside, and said, “Try to keep up.”

* * *

After they had left the DC airspace, Sam put the Quinjet on autopilot and leaned back.

“Enough flying for one day?” Tony asked.

“We were barely in the air for a minute.”

“Tell Steve we want some flying bad guys the next time.”

Sam grinned at him.

Tony continued, “Opponents need to at least have two fliers for team motivation.”

“You seemed motivated alright to me.”

“Well, I did have to contain their online attacks at the same time as punching them. I had my fun.”

“So, the two fliers are just for me. You are too generous. Although you could just have left me some of those non-flying goons back there too. I barely got any of them.”

“Four is plenty. Especially with their tech. And you did complain about always getting shot at last week. I did not want you to file a complaint with Steve when we come back.”

“Steve probably thinks getting shot at plenty is a good thing.”

“Not when it comes to your precious ass, I don’t think.”

Sam snorted. “Did you leave the drive with SHIELD?”

Tony swiveled in his chair. “Are you kidding? Leave them with the key to the mightiest malware I’ve ever seen that I didn’t program myself? You don’t give a toddler a box of matches and then wonder who burned down the house.”

Sam looked out the windshield mulling it over for a minute. Tony wondered if now Sam would tell him how far exactly he trusted him, but finally, he said, “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Tony asked. That really felt good, despite catching him by surprise. Sam not trying to kill him once in the six days they spent together without break was already some kind of record, but this was so much more. “Just like that?”

“I don’t know who would have handled it at SHIELD. It’s easier to trust someone if you know them. And I know you.” He checked the controls. Tony watched him.

“That you do.” And still, Sam did trust him. Tony got up to check on their gear again, far too wired to sit still.

They landed on Avengers tower half an hour later. Standing in the door to the landing pad was Thor, apparently waiting for them to land. Tony smiled at the warm feeling that was taking over his stomach. He had avoided thinking about Bruce and Thor as much as possible; it would have been only making things worse, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the pleasures of coming back. And he had so missed them.

They lowered the hatch in the back of the jet but weren’t able to step outside before Thor swept in. He enveloped Tony in a hug, and when he sat him down again, gave Sam a perfunctory clasp-back pat combination that was not even half as long. Smooth cover-up, Tony thought fondly.

“How glorious was your victory?” Thor asked.

Sam answered, “Tony barely left me with any bad guys to fight.”

Thor beamed at them, and Tony added, “Sam’s being humble. He gave’em hell.”

“I have no doubts,” Steve said. He and Bruce had appeared from behind Thor. “You got what you needed?”

Tony nodded. “Yes, and it would be best to secure it right away. We’ll need the drive to disable the part that is already online permanently.”

“I’ll come with you to help,” Thor said.

Steve looked at him with obvious doubt.

“I guess I'll help too,” Bruce said.

That seemed to make more sense to Steve. “We’ll do a full debrief tomorrow. Sam?”

“I can catch you up broadly,” he said. “And then you can help maintain the jet.”

That meant Sam would stay here, and Tony would leave for the lab. After six days they would part ways. For a short moment, his breath caught. It would be only until the next morning when the debrief would take place, but for a second, it still seemed like an eternity. Then Thor tucked at his shoulder, and Tony looked up at him. His smile was radiant, and Tony noticed with an ache how much its absence had made his days less bright. He looked over at Bruce, who also seemed almost uncharacteristically relaxed and elated.

“Let’s go.” He wanted to be somewhere where he could hug them and talk openly as soon as possible.

* * *

Tony poked the gauntlet prototype with a screwdriver. It reflexively closed its fingers but opened them again right away. He scowled and poked it a second time with the same result. Tapping the screwdriver handle on the desk, he grumbled to himself.

Bruce peeked over his shoulder. “Not behaving as it should?”

“No, it should only release on command or after 30 seconds without stimulus.”

Thor leaned over Bruce. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Before Tony could even groan in answer, Bruce said, “If it’s misbehaving, you could tie it down and spank it.”

“That doesn’t help with you either.”

Bruce tried to kiss his cheek, but Tony turned on the stool and pulled him down on his lap and into a proper kiss. It didn’t take long for Thor to clear his throat in admonishment. Bruce laughed against Tony’s lips.

Tony asked, “If you could take Bruce off my hands—” and before he could finish, Thor plucked Bruce out of Tony’s arms and leaned down to get kissed too.

Before any of them could develop any other grand ideas, JARVIS interrupted. “Mr. Wilson is on his way to the workshop.”

Thor put Bruce down on his own feet and straightened out his shirt for him with his large hands which managed to move him a bit like a rag doll. Then they went back to their previous occupations; Bruce was working with JARVIS on some calculations about tweaking the arc reactor to produce different kinds of radiation, and Thor was trying to teach the bots some Asgardian game that involved the throwing of stones into a circle on the floor from a distance.

The door opened, and Sam seemed to slow down for a moment, before greeting them all and walking over to where Tony was sitting.

“Are you occupied with something?” he asked.

“Nothing that works.” He poked the gauntlet again and this time it only curled up its fingers one after the other as if waving its own functionality goodbye. “Please tell me you have something less frustrating for me?”

“Well, that depends. You said I should come by to talk designs.”

“Yes!” Tony rolled his stool over to a section of uncluttered work surface. “We have options. Design phase. Love it! Everything is possible and nothing goes wrong.”

“It goes wrong, but you don’t know it until you have the prototype,” Bruce interrupted.

Tony already opened his mouth to offer Bruce some paddling in answer to his insolence, but then remembered that they had company. “Well, it’s still fun. Alright.” He pulled up the design software. “Let’s start with how we get the thing on you. The better it fits and holds you, the more we can do with the actual wings. This is your current harness.” The hologram flickered to a model of Sam’s torso with the straps indicated. Tony remembered how Sam had put the wings on their mission and lost time for a second. Thor, from behind him, cleared his throat again. Tony started back up as if it hadn’t been an embarrassingly long pause. “I think we can do a little bit on the ergonomic optimization and a lot with the material. Let’s see.” He redrew some of the straps to distribute the weight differently. Then he looked up at Sam again.

“I can definitely see that working.” Sam drew the lines across his own body, thinking.

Tony stared for a moment, then turned around and drew in another line to look back up and see. As expected, Sam indicated the line on his torso too. With a crinkle to his brow, he asked, “What would that one do?”

Tony shook away the image of the whole gear done in red leather and Sam putting it on without his suit. “It was just an idea, but it’s probably nothing that’ll work out.”

Bruce spoke up. “I just had another idea for the gauntlet.” He came over. “If you are mimicking nerve reactions anyway, you would just need to also replicate the repolarization to have a similar refractory period. Of course, it would need to be considerably longer.”

Tony’s mind took a moment to switch gears again. “Yes, it would need a way to circumvent it for instant release but that could be possible.”

“You could do it with two separate control systems.”

Tony wanted to kiss Bruce again, but before the impulse took over he looked up at Sam who was watching them, fascinated. “Like the system you control and an autonomous system for the reflex?” Tony could feel his own heart beating and listened to it for a few beats to make sure that it wasn’t doing anything out of order. Sam added, “It’s impressive how you come up with these ideas.” Tony was completely drawn in by Sam’s brilliant smile and he could have sworn that the room had gotten brighter. A stone thrown by DUM-E landed on the gauntlet and it again clasped shut, only to open right away and present the stone to Tony.

He had to shake his head to get rid of the weird overload. “JARVIS, take a note of Bruce’s suggestion.” He turned around towards Bruce. “Thank you for the idea.” He would make sure to express his thanks explicitly later. Then he took the stone and tossed it back towards the bots. Thor was occupying himself with counting the same five stones repeatedly. Tony ignored it for the moment.

He turned back around towards Sam. “Okay, back to your harness—for the wings.”

Sam’s eyes were bright with a twinkle. “The harness—for the wings.”

“We probably need to try how to best get you strapped in there.”

“You have more than one idea about strapping me in there?”

“Several, I’m sure we’ll find something you like.” They looked at each other but Tony got pulled out again by the plinking of stones.

“Let’s talk about the wing mechanics.”

While he was talking about the ideas he had to increase maneuverability along with speed, he tried to ignore the strange feeling of longing in his chest. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on the source of it. Having to change his behavior towards Thor and Bruce was strange and grating on his nerves for sure, especially around Sam. It felt so different from the time they had spent together because Sam trusted him. And he trusted Sam. That meant something, right? Or had those six days only been a fluke? Could they go back to that? There had been something…something nice. Some connection, right? They could be friends if Tony didn’t fuck it up.

He didn’t plan on fucking it up.

* * *

Tony woke up, deliciously warm and cuddled up to Bruce who in turn was spooning Thor. He slowly extracted himself, making sure he didn’t wake them when, for once, Bruce was sleeping in. It wasn’t often that Tony managed to be the first one up, but then he had exhausted both of them best he knew how last night.

He took one look back before leaving his bedroom. It was a satisfying sight, both of them happily cuddled up in his bed. Tony had done that.

Not that he wasn’t planning on doing better. He trod down the length of his floor towards his favorite construction site. The playroom was slowly coming together. It probably would have been finished by now if he didn’t have another set of ideas halfway through. It was supposed to be Tony’s playroom, so run-of-the-mill wouldn’t do.

The walls were still unpanelled, the floor was a maze of small cavities, and the storage that was being installed made it look like he was planning a boutique or a wood-paneled tuning shop, but Tony could envision the final result already. It was his gift, after all, seeing what things could be if he put his mind and hands to it. He could feel what it would be like once the construction was finished, and the furniture was in. He would move his—their toys in personally and then fill the space with its purpose. With Bruce and Thor. He was building it for them after all. For sex, on the surface, but it meant so much more. They were spending so much time together. A lot of it with play too, but there was more. He loved that, and he was sure they were feeling it too.

He walked through the large space towards the bottom-to-ceiling windows that made up one wall of the room. It was part of why he had chosen this room instead of the other guest room across the hall.

The view out the windows showed the city at dawn. Tony didn’t often get to see it after actually sleeping. He liked how it promised a day full of possibilities. It was the time of day Sam used to get up for his workout while Tony had stayed awake through the night. He wondered if he was getting into his running gear right now. If they weren’t that high up, he might even be able to spot him if he was going to run outside and not in the gym. Was he ever running at the gym? Tony should ask him.

He turned around to look at the room again in the light of the new morning. He was building something here, and he wanted it to mean something. Affirming that to himself was one thing, affirming it to Thor and Bruce was important too. But he also wanted to be able to show it out of these rooms. Tell it to people. He could probably tell Rhodey and Pepper, but he wanted more. He wanted to be able to tell it to all the people that were important to him—important to them.

He started to check the progress on some of the features he just recently designed, dictating notes to Jarvis for the contractor. He was just about done when Thor and Bruce came to find him. Wonderful people that they were, they even brought coffee.

“You left us to look at holes in the floor?” Thor asked.

“How are things going in here?” Bruce asked.

“There is still a little bit to go. You will have to be content with the bedroom and the gym a while more.”

They settled with their mugs on a stack of construction wood. They silently sipped their drinks until Thor asked, “Are you thinking about changing something else? You are staring at the walls quite intensely.”

Tony huffed. Thor knew him well enough to know the difference between having an idea, manically working through all the possibilities and pitfalls, and contemplating a challenge that lay before him. “I’m thinking about what we are building here.”

Bruce put a hand on his back, just resting it there warmly.

Tony continued, “I’m building it because I want you to be around. Not just for sex or play.”

Thor sidled up and lightly leaned into him, encouraging him to go on.

“I don’t want this to be a secret. It feels not right hiding it.” He was thinking about not being able to tell Sam what he was up to.

“We are not hiding anything,” Bruce said, not with force but conviction.

Thor added, “I agree to tell our team brothers. They should know about our relationship.”

Bruce and Tony both turned their heads towards him, but he only looked at them with a subtle challenge to correct him.

“So we are dating,” Bruce said pointedly.

“Dating—” Tony tried to get a word in, but Thor was already taking up the thread.

“I have seen people dating on TV. It looked like it would be very entertaining.”

“I’m sure Tony will show us a good time after we told the team, right?”

Tony blinked, wondering for a moment how they ended up here, but he had asked for confirmation and putting them out there. Thor and Bruce dove in to kiss him on each cheek.

* * *

It was all that Tony could do to not jiggle his leg permanently. The team meeting had been going on for hours. Not literally. It had taken the exact time it always took, going through their recent missions, reports from different team members about situations they had an eye on in case they’d get worse and would need intervention, and discussing upcoming public events that some of them needed to attend for publicity or charity reasons.

They were closing on the last point with Steve and Natasha agreeing to attend a charity gala for a youth project. They were media darlings, and the press loved to speculate what might be going on behind closed doors. They always took it in good humor.

“I will show you a good time, Rogers,” Natasha said.

“As long as you don’t again whisper creative insults for the people we are meeting in my ear, while we are meeting them, I’m sure it will be great,” Steve answered.

“I make no promises.”

Steve closed his eyes in exaggerated exasperation before motioning to close the meeting. Tony was about to speak up, but Thor was actually faster. “We would like to bring up one last point before we disassemble.”

There was no tension in the room. They all had grown comfortable with the team situation, despite the rocky start they’d had. Telling them would go over fine. Tony told himself there was no reason to be nervous. He tapped his fingers on the table, one after the other.

Bruce continued, probably to make it clear who was meant by _we_. “We are a team, and in that we are colleagues, and we are friends. It’s important to be able to be open with you. You trust us, sometimes with your life, and we want to honor that trust.” He looked expectantly at Tony. Wow, what a way to not make a big thing out of their announcement.

Tony could feel his press smile sliding on; the one that he donned before saying something outrageous. He tried to dim it down, but it would be best to just get it over with. “Thor, Bruce, and I are dating. We have been for a little while, but we think it’s time to tell you all. We want to be able to show it openly around you guys, so here we are.” He took a breath.

There was silence while everyone processed what they just said. Tony could read varying levels of surprise on everyone’s faces. Most flabbergasted seemed to be Bucky though it did look like the possibility of his teammates dating just had never appeared to him, and his mind was blown. It was probably just seconds between Tony’s declaration, and Clint saying, “Congratulations! It’s great that you told us.” He looked actually a bit surprised by his own words.

And suddenly, everyone chimed in with congratulations and affirmations of how happy they were for them. In the chaos of that moment, Tony made eye contact with Sam. There was a small smile on his face, but somehow it felt a bit lost too. Then, all that was gone, and his eyes were smiling too when he joined in congratulating them with the rest of the team.

* * *

Tony’s plan had been to take Thor and Bruce on individual dates. So he asked Thor out on a calm Wednesday afternoon. “What do you think of dinner at a nice restaurant on Saturday evening?”

“Like a date?”

Tony had to smile. “Very much so.”

“I’ll go and ask Bruce.” 

And that was that. Tony guessed it made sense with them spending the most time with all three of them together, but it wasn’t calming Tony’s nerves any one bit.

It was not that he wasn’t experienced with dates. He had plenty of experience wooing and bedazzling people, but none where the bedazzling was happening after he had admitted that it mattered.

Whatever the stakes, he calculated for plenty of time on the evening itself to get into the right headspace before collecting both, Bruce and Thor, so he could be the best Tony Stark had to offer. That was his plan. In reality, an hour before they were supposed to leave, Thor stood in the door to his closet. “I just wanted to see what you are going to wear.”

Ten minutes later, Bruce showed up looking for Thor. They barely were able to leave on time. No opportunity for donning any winning personality.

Down in the garage, Tony looked wistfully at his Audi roadster which he had imagined taking Thor into town with. “We will have to take another one because it has only two seats.”

“You have cars that don’t fit all of your boyfriends?” Bruce asked, while he very well knew that because he had ridden in several of them before the Avengers even moved into the tower. They ended up taking a far less stylish black Chevrolet. On their way, when Tony had to wait at a red light, Thor excitedly pointed to a poster. “There is a carnival in Brooklyn. On TV they had so much fun on a date on a carnival.”

Tony wondered if Thor had been watching Disney Channel without anyone noticing.

Bruce said, “I haven’t been to one of those in years.”

“Well, I probably can rent one for the team at some point if you are eager to go.”

They arrived at the restaurant that Tony had bought out for the night. He gave the very attentive valet a generous tip as it would be his only one for tonight. He had preferred this to the need to hide in a private backroom so that there wouldn’t be photos of their date all over the internet the next day. One thing less to pay attention to.

Tony felt like he should have been envisioning how this would be an amazing evening, but mostly he had been focused on everything that could go wrong. He might have had an idea how to make it a perfect evening for Bruce or how to make it an amazing evening for Thor, but for them both at the same time? While everyone kept their clothes on? This was a highly complicated undertaking with a sheer incalculable amount of risk.

The maître d’ welcomed them with a smile and showed them to the best table. The best table in Tony’s book with a nice view of Central Park but also a bit off to the side, giving it the feeling of a little more privacy. It was cozy in a fancy way, and it was one of the few things he thought both, Bruce and Thor would appreciate. He really didn’t need to already fuck up at the start of the evening. This was the part he was supposed to be good at.

Their waiter handed them menus, specially created for the evening. “The lamb looks good,” Bruce said, and while Tony knew that he wasn’t a vegetarian to one hundred percent, it still derailed him.

“Yes, that sounds quite tasty. And one lamb for each of us should be enough,” Thor added.

Tony balked. There was no way the kitchen had prepared whole lambs, but he hadn’t even opened his menu yet. He looked down, flipping through it, searching for what Thor was referring to.

“I was joking, Tony.”

Tony looked back up to Thor, who was eying him with a mix of curiosity and worry. “I have been to Midgardian restaurants before. I have been to Midgardian restaurants with _you_ before.”

His own laugh sounded hollow to Tony. “Of course.”

He ordered the fish for himself; in case the lamb did not turn out to be to the liking of them both, they could quickly exchange without having to wait for the kitchen to prepare something else.

After choosing the wines to go with each menu, they were all silent with Thor and Bruce expectantly looking at Tony. If he’d been more of an optimist, he might have hoped that they would entertain each other in case he was lulling, but he wasn’t. He was Tony Stark; he was supposed to be excellent at entertaining and impressing people.

He smirked and drew up an eyebrow in a well-practiced expression. “So, have I told you how I found this restaurant?”

“Wasn’t this the one where you fought some bad guys in the backyard and won, but the thrusters wouldn’t start anymore, so the chef insisted on feeding you while you waited for Happy to come and get you?” Bruce asked.

With a shock, Tony realized that he had been here with Bruce already, shortly after he moved into the tower. When they were still mostly colleagues, slowly becoming friends. He had planned a romantic dinner at a restaurant they had already had casual lunch at. And then he had forgotten all of it. Again silence drew itself out between them. If the earth would open now and just swallow him whole, that would have been convenient.

Thor said, “I need to use the bathroom.” He left without any more fuss.

“It is a good story,” Bruce said to console Tony.

He was obviously as transparent as cling film to him. Tony had even tried twice to use the same anecdote to impress Bruce, and that under completely different circumstances; once as friends and now in a romantic capacity. Time to try to save at least some shred of his dignity. “The—”

He didn’t get any further because there was a loud crack somewhere in the depth of the building. Personnel from all corners of the restaurant rushed towards the toilets, and then Thor reappeared, his right leg wet from the thigh down. “The plumbing in the bathroom broke.”

Tony stared at him, trying to find another explanation besides the obvious one. He looked at Bruce who looked as if he had expected something like it but was impressed by the length to which Thor was going.

“They’ll probably need to close the place to repair it,” Thor added, smiling like it a) was great news and b) had nothing to do with him.

The maître d’ appeared at his elbow, looking stressed, probably by the prospect of having to tell Tony to pay for it and then kick them out. “I’ll of course take care of the cost and any time the restaurant might need to stay closed.” He got up. “I guess we’ll have to find somewhere else to eat then.”

Thor said, “I have an idea.”

Of course, he had.

On the mental list of all the things that could go wrong this evening that Tony had created, Thor breaking the bathroom had not been an item. He thought he might as well give up, and so he didn’t argue with Thor’s suggestion.

* * *

At the carnival, they got pink plastic wristbands for the rides. Tony could not stop himself from thinking that he would have worn a different shirt if he had known that. He didn’t have a lot of time to calculate all his missteps, as Thor, bright-eyed, pulled them towards the largest roller coaster right away, Bruce on one hand, Tony on the other. Behind Thor’s back, Tony looked at Bruce questioningly. What did Hulk think of carnival rides?

“That thing is hardly that bad,” Bruce answered the unasked question. Alright then. Tony let go of his apprehension. After this evening going off the rails this way, they also could lean into it.

Suddenly Tony realized that Thor was holding his hand, out in Brooklyn, without any second thoughts. His stomach did a loop de loop all on its own.

They had to ride the roller coaster three times in a row before Thor was ready to let them have a look around at what else there was to do. Bruce told Thor to get a corn dog, and that too ended with him wanting four more.

At the bumper cars, Bruce opted out, and Thor insisted on getting into one car with Tony. The other people on the ride were seemingly so intimidated by Thor’s battle cries though that no one bumped into them, and Thor lost interest halfway through.

Bruce meanwhile had spotted a skee ball stand. They played one after another with Bruce going last and managing to hit the central ring several times. “Oh my god, am I dating a jock?” Tony acted scandalized. Bruce pointed at Thor with a “duh” face.

With the combined tickets they got Thor an inflatable, violet hammer that said “princess” in golden letters.

They got several more dishes that were basically deep-fried meat, part of it on a stick, and all of it extremely delicious. Also churros. Both Bruce and Tony held their breath when Thor took his first bite and were not disappointed by his eyes getting bigger and bigger and the exclamation after. “By the norns, we should have this every day!”

“Part of the appeal is to have it only a few times a year,” Bruce said with a laugh.

“That does not make any sense.”

Tony said, “Well, think of something you like very much.” Thor looked at him with the small smile that meant he was thinking about Tony doing stuff to him. Tony shook his head. “It would not be as good if you could have it any time you wanted to.”

Thor beamed. “I think I’m getting it whenever I want.” Bruce pulled him a little way down to whisper something in his ear. Thor weighed his head to the side and said, “True.”

It was so much like their bickering at home that it hit Tony as if Thor had hit him with his hammer. They had successfully transferred their dynamic from there to here, and it worked. Tony had tried so hard to create a certain mood that he thought of as integral to a date and had struggled with it terribly. And then Thor had broken that pipe because he had noticed. Of course, they had noticed. Now they were here, and they were having fun. Bless the Disney Channel. 

Tony was whacked out of his contemplation by Thor’s violet princess hammer. Both, Thor and Bruce, were watching him, and he beckoned Thor to lean down with one finger. When he was close enough, he gave him a peck on the lips, and then, gave Bruce one too.

“There is a Ferris wheel waiting for us.”

They arrived back at the tower much later than Tony had initially thought. They went back to his apartment and got themselves a glass of water each, grinning at each other, wrung out.

“That was a fun evening.” The way Thor said it, Tony was thinking that having dinner at an upscale restaurant was not in the cards for any date in the future. He didn’t have a problem with that.

“Yes, we made it,” Bruce said. “And with only one minor flooding.”

Tony could laugh about it, now.

Thor added, “So, maybe Tony can be less awkward the next time.”

Tony bristled while Bruce almost fell off his seat, laughing.

* * *

Tony ran into Sam in the elevator of all places. He’d been out for a business dinner, and returned successfully but also deeply worn out. Getting into the elevator, he finally loosened his tie and asked JARVIS to get him up to the penthouse. He didn’t expect the cab to make a stop before it reached its destination and stepped up to the door as it slowed down. When it opened, he found himself face to face with Sam. All he could think to say was, “Oh.”

Sam looked at him with that small smile that he had cultivated in a week being stuck up with Tony and learning about his quirks. “You want to go to the gym in those clothes?”

Tony looked down at himself. He knew he was wearing a suit, but he still looked down at himself. He slowly said, “No?”

“Will you then at least let me into the cab?”

Finally, Tony’s brain kicked into gear, and he stepped back in so that Sam could get on too. He was also going to the penthouse, and they rode in silence. Tony couldn’t decide if it was comfortable or weird. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen Sam in the last two weeks, since that meeting where they told the team. There was team practice and team film night and team meeting again. Being open with them had led to Bruce, Thor, and Tony spending more time in the common areas too. (Of course, they were conscious about the amount of PDA, but there was some hand-holding and cuddling up in front of the TV.) It had removed a barrier between them, and the rest of the team that Tony hadn’t noticed building up.

And still, he felt like he hadn’t _seen_ Sam.

The elevator spat them out into the foyer of the penthouse. With a pang, Tony noticed that he had missed Sam, and before he could tell Tony goodbye and disappear towards his apartment, Tony said, “So has Pepper introduced you to our artist…acquaintances?”

“You mean her very impressive contacts?”

“Well, Pepper is my contact to her contacts. Networking. It’s a thing. Look it up.”

Sam grinned but apparently decided to indulge Tony. “We were on a vernissage last week. It was good. A lot but good.”

Pepper hadn’t said anything. How did she get to spend time with Sam when Tony had barely seen him? Even the development of Sam’s wings had come to standstill. Tony hadn’t really been sure if it was just their schedules not lining up like that or if something had become awkward between them. He didn’t want things to be awkward. He wanted what they had had in that small apartment. Easy, comfortable, close. Tony did the only thing he knew to do to get what he wanted. He pushed.

“I got a prototype for your wings.” He did not have a prototype for Sam’s wings. “So, whenever you have time we could test them.”

Sam looked surprised, but he smiled at Tony warmly and a bit impressed. “I can come down to the lab first thing tomorrow.”

“After your morning work out? So at nine?” Yes, Tony had retained that information. He patted his own shoulder mentally.

“Sure,” Sam said. He looked like he was actually looking forward to it. “See you there?”

“Yeah, see you.”

And then Sam had already disappeared into the direction of his own rooms. Tony withstood facepalming. _See you._ God, what was wrong with him. Had he always been this lame? Well, he had no time to work on his smoothness right now; he had a prototype to finish. He turned around and stepped back into the elevator.

* * *

Tony staggered into the spray of the contamination shower. Maybe he should start calling it something else because he had used it more often for this purpose than for decontamination—though it was a close race. It saw the most use when Tony had pulled an all-nighter, and his first appointment of the morning came as surprisingly fast as the sunrise, like today. It had taken basically all night with a few cat naps in between but the prototype of Sam’s wings was ready.

Tony finished his shower and slipped into one of the spare sets of clothes he kept on hand in the lab, the casual set with long sleeves and jeans and not the business one. He was glad that it was not either a three-piece suit or ratty t-shirt and the pair of work jeans that probably should have been laid to rest with full honors a year ago. Sam was someone who probably would never be caught in hole-ridden pants.

Caught up in his thoughts Tony only noticed Bruce when he was standing right beside him. With one leg half in one leg of the trouser, he almost fell if Bruce hadn’t caught him. “Hey there.” Bruce pulled him upright and gave him a kiss. “Have you been down here all night?”

Tony looked out over the chaos that one night of binge engineering had left in its wake. “It’s hard to deny, isn’t it?”

“Hey, I’m not admonishing you, Mr. Kettle. Just checking in on you.”

Tony looked at Bruce, for the first time this morning really looked at him. His heartbeat was quieting down from the frenzy it had been in rushing to get ready, and warmth spread from his stomach. “Do you actually know how great you are?” He took Bruce's face in both hands and kissed him.

They parted after a moment, and Bruce said, “If all-nighters make you believe that, you should do them more often.”

“Know, not believe. And that is an all-nighter independent assessment. It was just necessary to make you aware of it right now.” Tony finished buttoning up his jeans. “But where the hell are those socks?”

Bruce strolled over to one of the shelves and picked a black pair out from in between two autoclaves. With a well-aimed throw, he would have hit Tony’s head if he hadn’t caught them right in front of it. Bruce went on to check on his own long-term experiments.

Just when Tony had finished dressing, the lab door opened for Sam. “You ready?”

“Yeah, I just came down here,” Tony lied. He went to pick up Sam’s wings. Over the row of benches, Bruce threw him an incredulous but amused look. Tony shrugged lightly at him. It was a small white lie that he would explain later. The prototype was supposed to have been ready, so officially, Tony had had eight hours of very healthy sleep. Sam was a very healthy sleeper.

He handed the wings to Sam whose eyes went a little wide, while his hands took in the different parts. “It looks so sleek already. This is a prototype?”

Something inside Tony wanted to purr with satisfaction and bathe in the impressed look on Sam’s face. Instead, he went to grab a few tools he might need for readjustments. “The final thing will be miles better. But before that, the gods of engineering have set the testing. Let’s go.”

Before they were out the door, Bruce called after them, “Don’t forget the team lunch today.”

Tony turned around, jogged over, and gave him a final kiss. “Thank you. And of course not. What do you think I am? A confused genius?”

“Of course not.”

He went back over to Sam who looked half-amused, half as if he was finding them kind of cute.

“Hop, let’s get your ass in that gear.”

* * *

Tony hummed. He switched to the next browser window on his tablet and hummed some more. Thor’s giant hand landed softly on his collarbone. They were in the atrium at the lounge area by the panorama window that had the amazing view over the city. It had become a gathering point for all Avengers if they were reading or something else that didn’t involve a big TV screen, but they still wanted to be around the team.

Tony was leaning against Thor’s side, his feet up on the seat and paging through several manufacturer websites and review blogs. He hummed again, and Thor started to lightly stroke the fabric over his shoulder. Tony pulled up the first tab in the first browser window again and held it up for Thor to see. “Do you think those are too chunky?”

Thor looked down on the image of a pair of headphones, top of the line but because of that of course also very, very large.

“Chunky?” Thor asked back.

“Yeah, all the models that come with noise-canceling have very massive designs. This company has solved the sound reflection issues at least by hiring someone who understands something about making use of angles and they don’t have that industrial open wire mesh look.” He thought about all the things he knew Sam owned, sleek, well designed, slightly understated, often classics. No, the 70s amateur radio enthusiast look would not do.

Thor had stopped the petting. “I understand that you like them. That is a good reason to obtain them.”

“Oh, they are not for me.” Tony twisted his head to look up at Thor who was patiently waiting for him to go on. “They are for the team. Everyone should be able to listen to their music in good quality. And Clint can use them for gaming.” Tony thought for a moment if it would make a difference in the sound quality of the selected pair if someone was listening to soul instead of something with a heavy bass line.

Thor made a rumbling, contemplative sound. “For the team? Sam would probably be really happy about them.”

Tony perked up. “Do you think?” Maybe they were the right ones. He started to jiggle his foot happily. They did not come in any color but black though, but he could probably get them customized. He opened another tab.

A minute later, he was already deep into the possibilities when Bucky, Nat, and Sam came down the stairs, already in jackets, ready to go out.

“We’re going to Bucky’s new favorite burger place. Want to come with?” Sam asked. That Bucky had made his favorite anything known was a surprise and a good one at that. And Sam was looking relaxed and happy. For a moment, Tony didn’t know where to put all those nice gooey feelings. But at the same time…

“Not tonight. We have plans too.” And as if on command Bruce walked in from the direction of the foyer.

“You are going out?” he asked.

“Yes,” Nat answered. “Hansen’s burgers. I would ask if you want to come, but I guess you are included in Tony’s plans.”

“I sure hope so,” Bruce said and plopped down beside Tony.

They wished each other a good time, and then the three were off to the city.

Tony tried to go back to his custom order, but as soon as the three were out of sight, Thor said, “Tony is buying headphones for the whole team. Chunky ones.” He and Bruce shared a look.

Bruce said, “Sam is sure going to like them.”

“I said the same thing.”

Tony put the tablet face down on the coffee table. “You two should better put your attention to what you are going to get tonight.”

“Yeah?” Bruce's tone was teasing.

“Another shipment of toys for the room arrived yesterday. I unpacked them this morning.” Tony could feel both their attention change.

Thor asked, “What toys?”

Tony smiled as wickedly as he knew how.

* * *

For breakfast the next day they got everything that Thor knew how to cook and that one could reasonably argue was breakfast food.

Their evening had been good. Tony had put a spin on it and made Bruce service Thor this time. With a few extras. Bruce was most happy when there was an edge of pain with anything they did, and the new nipple clamps delivered exactly that. Further in, Tony had added a matching humbler for Bruce’s scrotum which had gone over even better. It was their first foray into CBT. Not because Bruce wasn’t open to it, but Thor had set it as a limit at first for when they were playing all together which was most of the time but had brought it back up last week. And Tony was happy to oblige.

They had unwound cuddling on the couch, watching half of a film before falling into bed and woke up almost in the same position, limbs interwoven, and had spent some time just lounging about kissing until they collectively decided if they did not get up now, the day would take place in bed. Tony’s shower was large enough for three luckily, and in the kitchen, Thor took over food and Bruce beverages, and Tony was left to prepare the table (and occasionally touch some butts). Now they were eating and all in all, it was the perfect morning. Tony was unbelievably happy. He was so god damn lucky.

He said, “We should talk about dating other people.”

The following silence was underlined by Bruce and Thor both looking at him, their food forgotten. It stretched out, and Tony thought he should finally found a science-based religion so that he could pray in these situations.

“Finally,” Thor said.

Tony thought he must have spaced out and missed part of the conversation. “What?”

Bruce picked his fork back up. “Your pining after Sam was getting painful to watch.”

“I’m not—” He couldn’t finish the sentence. “Is it that obvious?”

“Only for people who know how you show affection.”

Tony wasn’t sure if he should feel a bit ashamed or very, very loved. Maybe both. “And you’re okay with that?”

“Tony,” Thor said in a tone that said that he found him obtuse. “When I asked you if you would do a scene with Bruce, that was opening our relationship up.”

Hearing Thor refer to those early stages as a relationship already made warmth trickle down Tony’s spine.

“What would be so different about this?” Thor asked. “Why would you assume that that was okay, but another is too much.”

Tony honestly tried to find an answer. “It just seemed selfish when I already have you two.”

“Maybe it would be selfish to begrudge Sam the same we have,” Bruce said.

“You are allowed to be selfish,” Tony pushed back.

“So we are allowed, but you aren’t?” Bruce made an impression that said that this argument was checkmate.

Tony had to admit that they had him there. “And now?”

“Now you go and get him,” Thor said.

“But I don’t even know if he likes me that way.”

There was harmonized groaning from both of them.

* * *

It took a few days until Tony found a good opportunity to ask Sam out. He had been on some proposals from marketing on his laptop, in the common lounge area. Around him, the others had been coming and going, without catching a lot of his attention. Of course, he had noticed when Sam had sat down on the chair next to the couch with a book, but then Clint and Steve's bickering had broken that short moment of tension, and Tony went back to his reports.

It was a while later when Thor clearing his throat caught his attention.

“I have to check on Mjölnir,” Thor said and got up from his place beside Tony. Wondering if he had missed part of the conversation, Tony looked around, and to his surprise, everyone except for Sam, Thor, and him had meanwhile left. And now Thor was leaving too, under the disguise of the flimsiest excuse he could think of. Tony probably should be glad that he didn’t add ”nudge nudge wink wink” or physically pushed him at Sam, but it was a great opportunity.

When Thor had disappeared at the top of the steps, Tony put the laptop on the seat beside him, sat up straight, and tried to gather his thoughts. His wandering eyes caught a glimpse of Thor spying around the wall at the walkway above them. Tony gesticulated for him to go away, but Thor was miming at him to ask Sam. Tony shook his head. Thor crossed his arms and tried to look stern. Then he jumped and ducked behind the wall with rotating arms. Checking why Tony saw Sam looking to where Thor just disappeared. Maybe this was not the day.

The next time Tony was alone with Sam, Thor was nowhere in sight. His chances were looking up. Sam had come down to the workshop to drop one of Clint’s arrows off, so Tony could check why it had malfunctioned in training.

“Does Barton make you his errand boy now?” Tony asked, tempted to slap himself only a second later when he realized that it sounded like he didn’t appreciate Sam showing up.

“No, I offered,” Sam said with a grin.

“You did?” Tony couldn’t keep his voice from coming out a tad breathy.

“Seemed like a good opportunity to catch up with you. What have you been up to?”

“Well, I could tell you all about that over—”

The door to the workshop opened, and Bruce came in, saw them, and made an about-turn. The door audibly closed behind him.

Tony had stopped in the middle of what he was saying, and Sam was looking at where Bruce just had been. When he turned back, Tony acted as if nothing happened. “Well, SI is close to finalizing a deal…”

That same night, Tony had trouble going to sleep. The missed opportunity was weighing on his mind, and he needed something to quieten the worries that he might just ruin every opportunity he would get. He made his way to the common kitchen for hot chocolate. That was how bad it was. For all the time he was now spending in his own kitchen, nothing had ever made him see the necessity to stock some powder there, until tonight. He was going to rectify that mistake, but for now, he knew where to find some.

On his way, he thought about how he could manufacture a good opportunity to ask Sam out, but something like today in the workshop was already as close as one could get to perfect, and he just should have done it. Get that rejection and move on. He sighed. Next time. Next time he would go for it, no matter who barreled in. He rounded the corner into the kitchen, and right there was Sam, having late-night cereal.

Before Tony could even think about it, he said, “I don’t remember this part of your daily routine.”

Sam took him in with no obvious surprise. He said, “Yeah, well. Maybe you don’t know everything about me yet.”

“I’ll make a note about Cinnamon Toast Crunch at midnight then.”

Tony walked to the cabinet to get a mug but stopped halfway. Here it was. No more delaying. He turned on his heel and even before his eyes met Sam’s he said, “Go to dinner with me?”

Sam looked confused for the shortest moment, prompting Tony to clarify, “On the weekend at dinner time. Not at one a.m. on a Tuesday night.”

Sam put down his spoon and scrutinized Tony, still no answer forthcoming. Tony couldn’t take another minute of uncertainty, “I mean as a date.” Softer he added, “Just so you know.”

Finally, Sam said, “Bruce and Thor…?”

“Know about it. Are supportive.” Tony thought back at his first two attempts. “A little bit too much maybe.”

“But you mean like a date, not…” Sam was trailing off again. He looked as if he was trying to give Tony the opportunity to say what he actually meant.

But Tony didn’t know what else he was supposed to mean. “Not what?”

“You trying to get me into bed.”

Tony was glad; this he could handle. He smirked purposefully over the top. “That can be part of the plan, but there is definitely a date or more before that.”

Sam scrutinized him for a moment longer. ”Four.”

“For what?”

“Four dates. Before there is any sex.”

Tony was taken aback. “If you really think I’m only after—”

“I don’t,” Sam said, and Tony really didn’t know how not to believe him. “But I want to give this time. There is a lot going on.”

Tony had to concede that that was true. Wasn’t it part of the reason why he had taken such a long time to admit to himself that he had feelings for Sam?

Sam continued, “And it won’t just be hard on you; believe me.” He shook his head if already regretting his own suggestion. “But we can figure out how this’ll work while we’re going. So let’s not make it too hard on ourselves. Four dates.” He looked at Tony expectantly.

“Let’s do it. Saturday, I know a place.”

They grinned at each other for a moment longer in uninterrupted silence.

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments, long and short.
> 
> You can also find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/loraneldin) or[Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/Loran).


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